Live Q&As

This is just my opinion, but if an athlete is going to smoke weed, he's going to do so whether his team is good or not.   Anyway, that said, I think that NOT appealling the suspension is the smart move.  It's either now (in a season that's over), or next year.  No-brainer to just serve it out now.

Unfortunately, I think Jimmy's right, although it really ticks me off that a professional athlete being paid boat loads of money can't lay off toking for the season. The offense will miss Davis but obvioulsy he doesn't seem to care that his actions affect other people. Very pathetic. Just adding to the list of additional positions the Deadskins may need to fill.

Jim and Jen are right here. It's not about giving up on your team. Let's say they do appeal and finish this 4-8 season off to TRY and spoil (which will not happen against any of the teams we play with winning records and playoffs in their minds), what happens if the appeal isn't looked at until after the season or with 1 game left and they lose. Then they'll be sitting out the start of next season. Sad to say, these are our best 2 players on offense (besides our punter #Ouch), so we can afford NOT to have them when games matter, like the start of next years season. And we all know drugs of any kind are bad, but to their defense a lot of people didn't think there would be football this season, so that would explain 2 of our youngest guys getting into a little "extra-curricular" activities.

I knew the "icing the kicker" thing would come up, and I already wrote about it this morning on my own little blog, so I'm just going to cut and paste:

People are absolutely destroying Jason Garrett today for icing his own kicker yesterday.  His explanation was that the play clock was running down, and he wanted to give his kicker a more relaxed and stable opportunity rather than fire off a kick with an expiring clock.  It’s actually somewhat reasonable.  The side effect was that he happened to call the TO as the ball was snapped and as we all saw, Bailey made the kick.  We kill opposing coaches all the time for “icing the kicker,” with the premise that the kicker gets a practice shot first, and why would you want to give him that advantage?  The outcome obviously looks extremely embarrassing, I can’t really kill Garrett there.  I really can’t.  I mean… What if Bailey misses the first one, then hits the second?  We’re calling Garrett a genius this morning.

What the hell were the Cowboys doing prior to the actual kick?  With 1:15 to go and TWO TIME OUTS, the Cowboys were driving and very much looking to strangle this game away with a patented late FG for the winner, as they’ve done all season.

1st and 10 at the Cards 45 – A rattled Montrae Holland gets a little nervy due to the Cards’ effective blitz schemes, and with a few Cardinal defenders moving around in his general vicinity, Holland jumps.  False start.  Back to midfield.  Terrible timing for that to happen.

1st and 15 at the 50 – Incomplete pass.

2nd and 15 at the 50 – Delay of game.  What?!?  Really?

2nd and 20 at the Cowboys 45 – Pass to Dez Bryant complete, 9 yards, most of the penalty yardage back, but at the cost of a down and 30 seconds. Clock running…

3rd and 11 from the Cards 46 – Tony Romo makes a gorgeous play.  Hangs in… Hangs in some more… And fires a perfect strike in between two defenders for a 15 yard gain to Dez and a first down with :25 left on the clock.  Pressure throw, and he nails it.

OK, now Tony, you made the big throw.  Call timeout.  Timeout.  Timeout.  OK, Tony’s in the heat of battle.  You call the timeout instead, Garrett.  Timeout.  Uh, timeout?  Wait… What?!?  You guys know you have 2 timeouts, right?  You’re not going to call a time out?!?!?!?

Nope, instead, Romo hurries the troops down and spikes it with :08 remaining.

We know what happened after that.  I could have sworn I was watching the Eagles.

Reading Jimmy's answer it does seem that the poor clock management was a bigger problem than icing his own kicker. Clock management is unbelievably important (and the Giants learned that lesson the hard way at the end of the game yesterday). But calling the timeout was still a "whah???" moment.  Did he really have any reason to believe that the kicker wouldn't make it? I just don't get it.

Yeah Jim, that was just terrible time management all the way around. You thought you were watching the Eagles, well I thought I was watching the 2nd-term Joe Gibbs Redskins. As far as him freezing his own kicker, all I can say is "it couldn't have happened to a better team this year." Those bastids beat my Skins TWICE this year kicking FG's either all game or at the end, and to see them barely beat a over-matched Miami team on Turkey Day in that fashion, it brought great warmth that they'd lose a game to a 3-win team on a FG. A game that could've gave them commanding control of the division. As you said #PRICELESS!

There's all kinds of back and forth about JG icing the kicker, but the real problem in the last 45 seconds of regulation was not calling time out after that beautiful Romo-Bryant 3rd down pass. Essentially, JG (or Romo) decided that going for a 48 yarder even though you have 2 TOs left is the way championship football is played. (I'm thinking they had a brain freeze more than anything). I'm not sure why, with 20 seconds left and 2 TOs, you don't try to run the ball or try to pick up 5 more yards somehow so that it becomes an easier kick for ol Danny Boy. That was the real crime.

I'm sure it has happened in the past, although I don't remember it happening in the NFC East off the top of my head.  Not only did they go 0-4, but the Eagles and Cowboys both lost to awful NFC West teams, which was, perhaps formerly, the laughingstock of the league.

That's why they say "Any Given Sunday". I can't say much about the Beagles loss to the Seahawks given that my own team lost to them. But I was surprised that the Cowgirls lost to Arizona and failed to put up more points than they did. I did expect the Jets to beat the Deadskins but thought at halftime that the Deadskins might actually pull it out, tho it was not to be. 

It's interesting, though, how the expectations lined up. No one expected the Giants to beat GB (that is, of course, except Giants fans and even many of them never thought it possible), but they gave GB a run for their money. Fans probably didn't expect much from DC or Philly either, and both games ended as expected. The Dallas game was the true surprise of the weekend, I think, and I also think it gives that much more life to Giants fans hoping that the G-Men can still win the division.

As for all four losing the same weekend, I think it probably has happened at some point (after all, this division has been designated as the NFC LEAST in other years) but I can't think of a specific week. We're justa mediocre division. Although, here's a question for you all: Which is worse - the NFC East or the NFC West? Of course the West has San Fran and no East team comes close to comparing.

Yeah the score for the Redskins doesn't look close but that game was just as close as the Midgets/Packers game. Only we actually had a lead with 4 minutes left....DAMN, DAMN, DAMN! 3rd and 7 Jets with the ball on their 46 yard line and of course they get 15 yards. Same song as both Cowboys games with Dez Bryant burning D Hall. Yesterday it was Plax on D Hall. The very next play Santonio Holmes for 30 yard TD and the most annoying Jets fan flying down my aisle with his arms stretched like an airplane. Let's say he flew by me 2 more times in the next 20 minutes! Sorry I had to vent. #CubaSwing

But yeah I'm sure divisions like NFC and AFC West have managed to lose all on the same weekend as well.

You called our reading skills into question, so I'll do my best to take out the red pen, 4th grade teacher style.

"What ever happened to the "Trash Talk" For the fans?This was supposed to be a forum for trash talking by the FANS not the moderators."

Space in between the question mark and next sentence.

"Eleven - thats 11 for you moderators who feign reading skills (you reading this (especially Chris and Jimmy)."

Typically, you wouldn't put parenthesis inside more parenthesis.

"Oh wait a minute, you have to "read" numbers too... never mind you will never comprehend this any way"

Anyway is one word, not two.

"Go back to the week after y'all announced this forum the first question/comment was mine, and the next, and the one affter that and the one after that were all mine."

That should probably be two sentences, and I don't think "after" has two F's.  Your grammar, however, deserves one.

"Come to think of it I think the first nine that first real week of tarash talk was ALL mine."

I think you mean they WERE all yours.  Also, what's "tarash?"

"So why don't you guys get off your self-serving butts and open this ou to some real trash talking and do this thing on FRIDAYS not Monday."

So Monday is the "self-serving" day of the week?  Hmmm.  I learned something today.

"The junk story you guys (WaPo) did a while back about the Washington fans being mediocre is bull. the only thing mediocre is this paper."

First, we capitalize the first word of every sentence.  Secondly, I don't know what you're talking about on that one, but without having read the article to which you're referring, it's fair to say that opposing fans routinely show up in big numbers at Skins home games, no?  Anyway (remember again, "anyway" is one word), did Chris, Roger, Jen, or I write that WaPo article?  Different columnists have different viewpoints.  I don't work for the Washington Post, and I want to be careful not to speak for them, but I'm pretty sure they encourage a variety of viewpoints.  Every Washington Post employee doesn't share the same brain... I think.  I'm not sure why you're criticizing us for articles we didn't write.

Post this I dare you.

Done.

Well said, er, written, Jimmy!

While this is my first foray into being a host of a live online chat, one thing I didn't know what to expect when I first started was the question volume and how best to get to everything in during the alloted time. Some chats receive way more questions than the moderator/host can get to. Others not as many. You call for more trash talking on the part of readers but those who submit don't always send "trash talk" questions. They may be more generic questions while others are very trash talk in nature and we respond to what we get. Yeah, we trash talk amongst ourselves as well but that really is the POINT as well as responding to trash talk from readers. And as for typos and the like, there is no spell check and we write these responses quickly but I seriously doubt you've ever misunderstood someone's response, even if it wasn't perfect in terms of spelling or grammar.

LOL! MA'AN! WHEW...All I can say is "What Jim Said" I mean I was going to call you out for spelling "tarash", when the word "TRASH" is in the subtitle at the top of the blog. But Jim just gave us all a 4th grade grammar refresher that clearly you my friend should study #DAILY!

I think the Deadskins and Beagles are now trying to act as spoilers while the Cowgirls and the Giants duke it out. While the Giants had an embarrasing loss to the Saints, I think they played well enough against the Packers (the best team in the entire league, no question) to give them confidence to make a run for the division title. I think Big Blue can beat the Deadskins and Jets, so the real question will be if they can defeat the Cowgirls twice. I think they will win at least one and if the Giants play as well as they did yesterday and Dallas plays as poorly as they did yesterday, I absolutely think it can be done.

I'd say it leaves the division pretty much in the toilet.  Is there a worse division in football right now?  The Cowboys get lucky 2 weeks in a row, first being at the mercy of Graham Gano's leg in one game, and then getting a gift 7 from Miami on Thanksgiving.  Now they lose to the Cardinals in a game in which they can only put 13 points on the board.

The Giants, while playing as well as anyone could have reasonably expected yesterday, still lost, making it four losses in a row.  They still control their own destiny, but at some point they have to... you know... win a game here or there.

Meanwhile, the Eagles are the dumbest team in the league, and the Redskins are... the Redskins.

I know this is trash talk and we're all supposed to be all "alpha" with our squads, but I have to admit, I have no faith in the Cowboys.  The last three games have been examples of how mediocre this team is. They've only beaten one team with a winning record- and that was back in week 2. They've eeked out victories against poor squads more than a few times. They often look better in losses...(except yesterday). You never really know about the Giants...but frankly I can't see them losing five in a row. If I'm a betting man I take the Giants on Sunday night.

So as for your question: The Giants still have a tougher schedule on paper then the Cowboys do, but given the weakness of the Cowboys braintrust, I'd say the divsion is a toss up...as is the wild card. With the Falcons laying an egg yesterday, the Bears without their two best players on O...seed 4,5,6 in the NFC is up for grabs.

Yesterday was another example of the severe inconsistency in which the entire division has operated under all season. With the talent the division has, the overall record should have definitely been much better. And each team has had unexpected wins and unexpected losses. While the Deadskins and Beagles seasons seem to be over, it's now looking more likely that the division winner may be a 9-7 team - ouch!

The division is really the Midgets for the taking, but I have no faith in Eli so I can't call it yet. Every game he shows me  a little more with his passing but I'm just waiting for him to do a play dumber than he looks (like the pick 6 yesterday). The same can be said for Romo and the Cowgirls, but I think their defense is slightly better than the Midgets. Jim made a interesting point. Their last 2 wins have been by fate from the other team. Thank you again Graham Gano, for making all 4 fg's yesterday and missing TWO when one coul've gave us a W against our most hated rival. Woo-Sah! Miami gave them the game on a costly turnover that lead to points. But take away fate, and their all but out the playoffs as well. I guess that pretty much says our division reeks like armpits or in other words, STINKS!

I actually think Eli is playing pretty well. He got it done when he absolutely needed to yesterday on the Giants last drive but the defense couldn't hold. As a pressure player, I think Eli is fantastic and I think Romo isn't quite at that level from a full pressure stand point. The Giants absolutely hold their own fate in their hands. Having Bradshaw back (thank Heaven!) and Boley back are key, which is why I think they can close out the regular season with four wins.

That's a question that could have literally thousands of answers, but I'll offer just one.

Get a QB.  A real QB.  Here are the Redskins QBs during the Dan Snyder era. Read at your own peril.

Or maybe the fans need to overthrow Snyder in some sort of coup.

Yes, the Deadskins front office really just doesn't seem to know what the hell they're doing. They may throw money at a problem (see Haynesworth, Albert) without giving real consideration to how bringing in such a player will impact the rest of the team. Regardless of position, there also doesn't seem to be a whole lot of players willing to take on a true leadership roll, and that, to some degree, is also a failure of both management and the coaching staff. Yes, getting a better QB would definitely be a step in the right direction, but also bringing in a veteran or two with very solid experience (even if he may no longer be at the very top of his game) could also help be a catalyst for the rest of the players.

Greatness can't be restored in Washington for another couple seasons, at the earliest. They moved in the right direction a season ago bringing in a GM that would make the decisions, instead of Dan Snyder playing Fantasy Football with our franchise. But greatness takes time. Look how long Detroit and San Francisco were terrible. We are just as bad as they were if not worst. A couple years of drafting and not going out and wasting money on names and a good team should be in place. Once you have a good team, you can start working on greatness. I believe there are several college teams out there that can get a W against the squad the Redskins have now. Seriously!

The QB problem is obviously the answer to this question. But a few weeks back Roger and I were batting around a secondary point- when was the last time the Skins had a REAL big time receiving corps? For as much as I actually respect Santana Moss (largely because he's a Cowboys killer), we couldn't come up with one guy that would be considered a consistent threat that opens up the field. Sure, y'all have had good TEs, but man, while a QB is certainly essential, it also helps to have some guys that puts fear into the defense.

Well, hold on there just one second. I seem to recall the last team that went undefeated in teh regular season didn't come out with the championship so nothing is certain. The odds are probably in favor of the Packers repeating but their defense could also be their downfall. I think Rodgers is a lock for MVP but the playoffs are still a ways away and when you have the possibililty of injuries, you can't crown anyone anything until the last game is over. I think GB would be more likley to risk losing and rest players the last game or two of the season as well. And the Saints have been looking sharp! I should know, given how they manhandled my Giants (see, I am NOT shying away from that today...).

As Jen noted (and every Giants fan for the remaining history of time will note), the Pats looked totally unstoppable and lost.  The Packers will need to win 2 games to get to the SB, and then actually win the SB.  Those 3 games won't be "gimme's" by any stretch.  But man, I don't know how you stop that offense.  It's just weapon on top of weapon on top of weapon, and the guy throwing to those weapons is having arguably the best season in the history of the game.

One other thing to note is that the Packers had an abnormally bad day in terms of dropped passes. You better  believe they will be working on that and will correct it. It's scary to think of them as becoming even better than they are now.

Packers have Aaron Rodgers, the best QB in football easily. As long as he's healthy and stays in Green Bay, I believe his legacy will be greater than Favre's. He's that good. With that said, the Saints can score with the Packers but they can't stop the pee-wee Glenarden Bulldogs from scoring, so I think they will go down as well. Too early to crown anyone, but I wouldn't bet my money with any other team.

Kurt Coleman (the Eagles safety) is ranked 5th in Pro Bowl voting for strong safeties.  5th!  Kurt Coleman has been terrible this year.  And yet, people that don't follow the Eagles as closely as Eagles fans will see Kurt Coleman and think "Isn't that the guy that had 3 picks in one game earlier this year? I'll vote for him."  But of course, what they don't remember is that Coleman was Rex Grossman's favorite receiver that day.

So to answer your question, if I'm a Skins fan, I'm more than happy to see Rex Grossman throw the ball out of bounds instead of making some marginal starter a potential Pro Bowl candidate.

Can you say "panic"? That's one of the reasons the Deadskins have a problem at QB, lack of confidence. Look how great some of the rookie QBs are doing this year - I don't think anyone expected Tebow to do as well as he has. They won't be able to get Luck (Indy likely will) but they should go for another solid QB in the draft.

Jen, that wasn't panic yesterday. All the other QB's we've had I'll give you that but yesterday there wasn't really a pass rush. Maybe Rex finally is listening to his coaches, Redskins fans and anyone with over a 2nd Grade education who says, "If the receivers have 2 or more defenders on them...throw the ball away NOT IN THEIR DIRECTION"  Unfortunately for us he didn't remember "when you get sacked...hold on to the ball!" #CubaSwing!

The guy has no feel for the pocket whatsoever. He can't even ground the ball correctly because he can't get out of the little zone to make throwing the ball away legal. But for as much griping as there is about Rex, what I'd be most heated about, if I was a Skins fan, is how the coaching staff said with a straight face back over the summer that he and Beck were the answer. Start calling them the Sham-ahans.

Can't really disagree with you, my friend. Let me take my trash talk hat off for a second and lay it down flat: Any self respecting Cowboys fan knows that we easily could be 5-7...if you've been a loyal trash talker since day one you can best believe I've been making this  point all year. I made this point earlier,  but we've only beaten one team with a winning record....and those victories over the Skins, Seahawks and Dolphins were nothing to be proud of.  Forget the record for a second tho....these jokers haven't really put together a strong  game since the 44-7 drubbing against the Bills. We'll see if they can man-up for Sunday night.

To CJ's defense he has said this all year long. He even was suspect about the Redskins and Cardinals games to me, and I just knew the outcomes. Wish I was wrong about the Redskins game and not the Cardinals tho. But you're right, they've been winning at the end of regulation or OT on FG's and their fans have been relentless on my twitter and facebook page like they are putting up dominating W's like the Saints and Packers. The old saying goes "A win is a win" tho...

Not if you want gravy all over the floor.

(tapping microphone) Is this thing on?  But seriously though... I've seen various reports that say he's likely to stay, with the caveat that he has to fire Juan Castillo.  Fire Juan, keep your job.  Keep Juan, and you both might be gone.  I'm not sure exactly who or why anyone in the Eagles organization would leak that, so it seems speculative to me, but that's what I've been hearing.

Personally, I'm leaning toward Andy leaving. It's the dumbest team in football, and has grossly underachieved.  He's been a great coach in Philly for a long time, but sometimes you can simply stay somewhere a little bit too long.

The gravy comment was funny.

I have a recollection that Vick likes Reid, which could buy him one more season. And the problems with DeShawn Jackson aren't Reid's fault. I bet he stays around one more season. But, that also depends on how true the rumors are about Philly courting Spagnulouo (I know I didn't spell that right) if St. Louis fires him.

The Giants are in a similar boat. Of course some people want Coughlin's head, others think Fewell should be long gone but Coughlin is loyal to his underlings. So, some people think if he ditches Fewell, he'll get another season. But still others think the Giants shoold do whatever possible to keep Spags from going to Philly. I doubt he'd become the Giant's DC again so it would probably be Head Coach or nothing.

I think Mike Shanahan is safe for now (but still believe Kyle should go) and, despite his big screw up yesterday, doubt Garrett is going anywhere.

Check our chat after Week 1. I called for the "Dream Team" to fail miserably (could've never predicted they'd be fighting for last place with us tho); Andy Reid to be fired finally; and Desean to walk over the peanuts he's being paid with. Looks like I just may be 3 for 3 on those predictions.

Not if you beat the Redskins in a couple weeks! NA NA NA NAAAA NA to that...and our best 2 offensive players aren't playing....OHHHHHHHHH!

I'll be rooting for the Skins in this game. Nice job missing out on Luck AND Barkley!

I mean that's not a bet worth betting. All these teams proved that. The Giants have lost IN New York to the Seahawks and to the Redskins by more than 10 points; The Cowboys have lost to Arizona Cardinals and got stomped by the 4-8 Eagles;  Redskins...well what 2 or 3 win team DIDN'T we lose to (Miami, Carolina....) oh the Rams, we beat those guys and the Cardinals (shout out to the Cowboys and Jason Garrett); and Eagles have lost 8 games when they were crowned champions in the off season. No brainer than whoever plays the winner of the division, whether home or on the road, has a good chance of winning the game.

The Seahawks were 7-9 last year and people were calling them the worst playoff team ever.  Then they smoked the Saints.

Whoever wins the NFCE is going to get a home game, and the wild card teams aren't exactly all that scary either.  We're talking about the Lions, Falcons, and Bears here.  They all kinda stink in their own way too.  The NFCE "Champ" could win a playoff game, but it ain't going any further than that.

Thanks for checking in with us, Trash Talkers. It's for (almost) all the marbles on Sunday night in Big D: Cowboys/Giants on Priiiiime-time.  Meanwhile the Eagles are in Miami and the Skins host the Pats. Enjoy the week.